Category: legal cannabis

BEND, OREGON – The city of Bend in Deschutes County, and the entire region of Central Oregon, is seeing its next big economic boom. Economic booms are nothing new to Bend. The community has seen many changes over the years as the economy has evolved from timber, real estate development, healthcare, food and craft beer. Today they are seeing a new industry emerge; an industry that is growing faster than any other. This particular industry is employing thousands of people, as well as providing over a million dollars in combined tax revenues to the city and county. Central Oregon’s...

After quite some time, the Cannabis Control Commission in Massachusetts has finally approved the regulations needed for the state to move forward with accepting applications for the newly legal cannabis industry. They had a deadline of March 15th, but this week it was announced that things were finally falling into place and that if all goes well, everything should be ready for legal sales to start as scheduled on July 1st. However, this may also fall on local lawmakers to ensure that their regulations and procedures are in place for businesses as well. “I think we have a lot...

Many of you may remember the sting operation that resulted in the issuing of citations to three leaders of the International Church of Cannabis in Denver, Colorado; they were each charged with a misdemeanor for open and public consumption of marijuana and violating the Colorado Clean Indoor Act after undercover police officers witnessed marijuana consumption at the Church’s private gathering on April 20, 2017. Earlier this month, the judge in the case – Denver County Court Judge Fred Rodgers – declared a mistrial after prosecutors were unable to seat a 6-person jury. For 2 hours both sides jockeyed to...

Last week I discussed Colorado Senator Cory Gardner (R) and his blockade of Department of Justice appointments on The Marijuana Times Show. Senator Gardner initiated his blockade after Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced his action to rescind the famous “Cole Memo” and its protections of state-legal marijuana programs. Now, Senator Gardner says he is partially lifting his blockade as a sort of show of good faith after conversations with the DOJ. “Since the Department of Justice rescinded the Cole memo, I have been working with the Department’s leadership, including Deputy Assistant Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and the Acting United...

Legal cannabis comes with some things that most people might not think of. One of those things is how legalization potentially impacts the safety of our roadways. Up until very recently, smoking cannabis around cops would be a terrible idea. But that is precisely what a group of volunteers did in the Santa Ana, California area. The volunteers participated in what were called “green lab” field test experiments, with the goal of aiding police and other public servants in identifying drivers who are stoned. Volunteers agreed to take field sobriety tests at the beginning of the experiment, while they...

Last week the U.S. Attorney for the state of Oregon, Billy Williams, made a speech in front of a crowd that included members of law enforcement, the cannabis community and Oregon Governor Kate Brown, in which indicated his displeasure at the thought of excessive marijuana escaping the state and being sold elsewhere via the black market. Williams said that Oregon has an “identifiable and formidable overproduction and diversion problem.” “That is the fact,” he added. “And my responsibility is to work with our state partners to do something about it.” As to what his office plans on doing in...